Where's Wolly?
You lot are absolutely hilarious! We are sitting in a bar in Barcelona laughing our tits off. Serengripitydipity indeed! And blimey I'd better watch where I stick my commas too!
Richard, Ibe Woody spot was on the N379, first obvious picnic area on east side of road after it bends to the south if coming from Sesimbra.
Lots has happened, so I better do this in episodes, starting with:
Where's Wolly?
April 13th, when we saw the courser was pretty windy, but next day was also very wet. We pretty much stayed indoors all day, but did pop out to see the courser again, and more migrants seemed to have appeared along the stretch between Tarifa and Punta Paloma. There were a lot more Short-toed Larks, our first Northern Wheatear, and a fair few Yellow Wagtails (Blue-headed and Spanish). I Was also glad to finally spot 3 or 4 Audouin's Gulls among the Yellow-leggeds.
By far the most interesting bird of the day for me was something I couldn't identify for sure. It was in view for quite some time as it battled northwards against the wind a few hundred metres inland, always remaining too distant for me to be able to work out what it was. The only thing it reminded me of was a Bald Ibis, and I think it may well have been one, if there is such a thing as Bald Ibises of dodgy origin anywhere near here.
Next day we figured it was time to start looking for Wolly, even though it was so windy that looking for warblers seemed like a daft idea. Basically we had limited time. The first spot we tried was the area suggested by, Eddie, the birder who told us about the courser. This was a rough track that heads through scrub-lined canals and fields, inland from where the N340 meets the road to Zahara. This looked like a great area for birding, but it was way too windy to look for warblers, and the track was pretty bad for the van. We picked up a Whitethroat and some Spoonbills before deciding to turn back, bumping into some local birders on the way out who couldn't help with the whereabouts of Wolly.
Next stop was a sheltered bay just north of Barbate, where there was an awful lot of scrubby stuff that looked a bit like tamarisk, but I think is something different. I spent a few hours here trawling with our recording of Wolly-speak (just the call, as we couldn't find the song on xenocanto). I discovered that Sardinian Warblers like it.
We then decided to press on to Coto Donana (Wollyville), but just to the small part of the reserve on the east (south) side of the mighty Guadalquivir river. Visiting the bit where most people go would mean a huge detour via Seville, and we wanted to revisit a spot we'd spent Christmas about 9 years ago. The area is called Pinar de la Algaida, just north of Bonanza, and we parked up for 2 nights there at the Ermita recreation area, seeing a fair few Montagu's Harriers en route. The small lake to the left of the entrance to this part of the reserve produced 2 White-headed Ducks and 3 Red-crested Pochard among the Pochard flock, and a very well-dressed Squacco Heron with the Cattle Egrets. There were also some Common Waxbills, which I've still not seen anywhere they're actually supposed to be! The lake has lots of Night Herons too.
The Ermita has a constant and plentiful supply of displaying Booted Eagles, and plenty of Black Kites, and from there it is possible to exit the pines and explore the reedy drains, saltpans and scrub up to and along the Guadalquivir. This area is thick with birds, so you would have to be a total wally to spend your time wandering from tamarisk to tamarisk looking for what could possibly be the world's least interesting-looking bird (although according to Nicky, Buzzing Flowerpecker is the world's least interesting bird). Examples of some of what I managed to see during the (sadly minimal) time I was not doing this were:-
A jammy adult Imperial Eagle being attacked by Yellow-legged Gulls over the river, Purple, Night (200+) and Grey Herons, Greater Flamingos (100s), Glossy Ibis, Purple Swamphen (6+), Gull-billed, Caspian and Whiskered Terns, Slender-billed Gulls (c10), Collared Pratincoles, Spotted Redshanks (3), Redshank, Greenshank, Grey Plover, Dunlin, Common, Green and Curlew Sandpipers, Spoonbills, Hoopoes, 3 Turtle Doves, Spotless Starlings, Short-toed Treecreeper, Tree Sparrows, Common and Pallid Swifts together, 100s of Short-toed Larks, lots of Crested Larks and a few Calandra Larks, Bee-eaters, Woodchat Shrikes, Nightingales, a Black-eared Wheatear etc. (commas OK there Ads and DMW?)
But, I was in fact spending most of my time seeking out patches of tamarisk and playing this stupid recording.
Mid April is not a good time to play “where's Wolly?”, but I thought I'd give it a go. The limited info I could get suggested that Western Olivaceous Warbler tends to arrive in Spain in numbers in May, but is possible earlier, eg Simon Wates had some on the other side of the Guadalquivir on April 19th one year, in tamarisk. He very kindly gave precise directions to where he saw them (nice one Simon), but we thought we'd try our luck here instead because of time restraints and diesel.
During the evening of our arrival it was still quite windy, and it was clear there weren't many warblers about except for Sardinians and Zitting Cisticolas, but a singing Reed Warbler and a Whitethroat provided some encouragement. The sky cleared by dusk and the wind dropped, so I was hopeful that some migrants might arrive the next day. In the morning, a short distance from the parking area produced a singing Chiffchaff, and a nice surprise in the form of a Western Orphean Warbler in a small tamarisk patch, as well as a Melodious Warbler that burst into song. Setting off on our bikes in the direction of the salinas observatory hide we found what I was looking for: a substantial isolated patch of tamarisk pretty much on the Guadalquivir. I figured that if I was Wolly, that's where I'd first pitch down. Trawling this just produced a single Garden Warbler though. All pretty quiet. Later that evening in the low sparse tamarisks on the ditch bank near the parkup I had a crazy few minutes. I unexpectedly hit a group of 4 or 5 warblers in the same tamarisk. I was on the wrong side of the light, and it was pretty breezy again, but as far as I could make out there were 2 Garden Warblers (one had no tail), a Reed Warbler, a Whitethroat, and a bird that straight away went BANG theres Wolly. Unfortunately I only snatched a few partial brief frustrating views, and when I tried to shift position to get better light, they all split, and I lost the right bird. I'm sure there are heaps of birders out there who would have nailed it properly given the chances presented to me, and I might have stood a better chance if I'd really had my eye in after a couple of weeks heavy birding instead of heavy partying. But basically I realised that there was no way I'd ever really be sure on that occasion for such a subtle bird, and that I'll probably never be that good no matter how many more years I go birding. I realised at that moment that if I ever could get that good, then what it would take (for me personally) would mean I'll have wasted my life.
That night was very clear and still, and I was even more hopeful that more migrants would arrive, so I planned to bike it early to “my” tamarisk patch and see if anything had turned up. Wow! It was thick with warblers! This was incredibly exciting, and I'd started to get my eye in by then. We hadn't seen any Willow Warblers up until now, and they were everywhere. Just one letter out. Willys not Wollys. Never mind. There were also lots of Garden Warblers, always good value when you're playing “Where's Wolly?”. Even a singing Sedge Warbler, and ridiculous numbers of Subalpine Warblers too. Unfortunately I had to head back to the van early, as the Guardia Civil had decided to wake up Nicky and tell her that we shouldn't be parked up where we were. Oh well. Only the 2nd time this trip that we've been checked by the police. Bad timing, but I may well not have scored anyway. On our way out of the park we took the semi-sealed road northwards along the edge of the Guadalquivir, and trawled another belt of tamarisk, picking up more Gardens, Willys and a frustrating possible Wolly.
And that was that. You can't win 'em all, and we really had to start heading north. That's 2 dips out of 3 so far as far as target birds go, but wow, Coto Donana is totally amazing. Missing Wolly is fine by me. Any excuse to come back to this wonderful country.
204. Wheatear
205. Audouin's Gull
206. Yellow Wagtail
207. Red-crested Pochard
208. Squacco Heron
209. Night Heron
210. Purple Heron
211. Purple Swamphen
212. Reed Warbler
213. Whitethroat
214. Melodious Warbler
215. Western Orphean Warbler
216. Turtle Dove
217. Tree Sparrow
218. Swift
219. White-headed Duck
220. Common Waxbill
221. Gull-billed Tern
222. Spotted Redshank
223. Garden Warbler
224. Whiskered Tern
225. Slender-billed Gull
226. Curlew Sandpiper
227. Willow Warbler
228. Sedge Warbler
229. Collared Pratincole
The weather's been pretty duff for butterflies, but there were notably several Bath Whites and Clouded Yellows at Coto Donana.
There's more to come....